Its so great to see Central American Aviation still has so much success. I was absent for a while because i had 6 months of final exam which went very well.... gracias a dios !!
I will be coming back to Costa Rica after 2 years on December 2nd. If any Central American a.netter wants to meet up I'd be happy to do so . I'll be there from Dec 2nd till january 1st with a little break between Dec16th and 22nd when I will be going to Panama !

Regards
BM

A man without the knowledge of his past history,culture and origins is like a tree without roots

In today's edition of La Nacion, an F9 corporate spokesman is quoted as saying their new DEN-SJO route (which will get going this Friday) has indeed proven quite popular, and that they're seeing a "very strong demand" so far.

The story then goes on to highlight the proposed new flight offerings for 2008 out of SJO, in reference to TX, AV/MM, and... this one's news to me... P5! Well, we didn't see this one coming, did we?

TA/LR seems to have quietly given up on their plans to start a couple of routes themselves, but now the Colombia-Costa Rica market is finally getting shaken up. Hope the newcomers realize the vfr potential of, say MDE.

Quoting Viaggiare (Reply 7):In today's edition of La Nacion, an F9 corporate spokesman is quoted as saying their new DEN-SJO route (which will get going this Friday) has indeed proven quite popular, and that they're seeing a "very strong demand" so far.

Costa Rica has always been one of the world leaders in Eco-tourism (the leader in my opinion), and this type of tourism is about grow like crazy due to global warming guilt, political unrest, and all that type of stuff. The eco diversity of Costa Rica, plus its very good report within the United States its a good combination. I expect the US airlines to announce more and more flights in the coming years.

Despite promise...it looks like DL have decided not to bring back their 1Xweekly LAX-BZE...although the way DL operates this could change at any time...they have also shelved their 1XRON ATL-BZE as well....this too was not doing too badly...just suffered from a lack of promotion (a la the LAX flight).

They're sometimes daily ATL flight though does show occasional upgrades from a CR7 to a 757..and on the days I checked it was FULL FULL FULL...

It is all strange....DL's success has been spotty and IMHO..the sole reason for the lackluster is a lack of promotion....example...lots of locals never knew the LAX existed till after it ceased.

When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No-one has ever collided with the sky.

It would be nice if DL would try using 737-700 when 2008 come around but I know these A/C are needed in places like UIO, CCS and other Caribbean markets. I also wonder if maybe trying using a 737NG Redeye from LAX-BZE and then send it BZE-ATL (early morning) returning back to BZE in (evening hours) then back to LAX would work.

Quoting Belizexp (Reply 11):I also wonder if maybe trying using a 737NG Redeye from LAX-BZE and then send it BZE-ATL (early morning) returning back to BZE in (evening hours) then back to LAX would work.

Absolutely would..and very well...would also allow for Euro/Asia traffic easy connections....thing is it would have to be daily (to facilitate the business traffic especially to LON) and I don't think DL has the stomach to take the losses while the route develops.

There is quite a bit of traffic to LHR/LGW ( i know someone that does it every 2 weeks) and lots of Taiwanese here that could use the nonstop to LAX to make a faster trip home.

When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No-one has ever collided with the sky.

Hello, Carmen ! Thank you for starting a new edition !
To the topic: Perhaps INTERJET is not offering paper tickets through travel agencies in Guatemala for GUA-TLC-GUA and GUA-CUN-GUA due to their own characteristics based on the low-cost model, where solely electronic tickets are available. Maybe it's the same situation with Spirit Airlines that you told us before.

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Quoting Juventus (Reply 8):I expect the US airlines to announce more and more flights in the coming years.

F9 is following a low-cost model as well.
They are starting the untapped market SJO-DEN and probably most of the success will be sustained in connections from U.S. westbound instead the origin-destination traffic for DEN-SJO.
On the other hand, the U.S. low-cost model has not worked properly yet in some points in Central America, despite the high yields that are seemingly granted for the carriers operating Central America-South Florida. NK will downgrade GUA-FLL and GUA-LAX will be axed from their regular schedules.

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Quoting Viaggiare (Reply 7):this one's news to me... P5! Well, we didn't see this one coming, did we?

I've just read some comments about the possibility for flights to both MIA and SJO on P5.

Quoting SJOtoLIR (Reply 13):Maybe it's the same situation with Spirit Airlines that you told us before.

In a sense, but Interjet is advertising like crazy to make it work. They even placed reservation/information counters in shopping malls (Miraflores and I think Pradera ConcepciÃƒÂ³n). So I guess that they are learning from NK.

nice and spacious airports in need of new airlines and flights... GUA or FRS anyone?... anyone at all?

Quoting SJOtoLIR (Reply 13):To the topic: Perhaps INTERJET is not offering paper tickets through travel agencies in Guatemala for GUA-TLC-GUA and GUA-CUN-GUA due to their own characteristics based on the low-cost model, where solely electronic tickets are available.

I knew they were launching Toluca-Guatemala City, but I wasn't aware they were also launching CUN-GUAThey're going to kill this little airline (Ka' an Beel Air) before they even start. Sad news for them
Cancun Start-up Airline To Lease 4 BAe 146-200s.(by Juventus Sep 28 2007 in Civil Aviation)

Quoting Aer (Reply 14):In a sense, but Interjet is advertising like crazy to make it work. They even placed reservation/information counters in shopping malls (Miraflores and I think Pradera Concepcion). So I guess that they are learning from NK.

And they are working with some tour operators as well...

Don't expect to see me around that much (if at all) -- the contact link should still work, though.

I am in GVA ready to fly to Costa Rics. I will be taking this route
GVA-CDG-ATL-SJO.... it will change from Iberia and will allow me to visit a new airport (ATL), fly a new aircraft(764) , take the 757 after 11 years, get PTVs (unlike IB), and get silver status for my flyin blue account. I'm all excited.
But especially the fact of seeing my country again makes me happy even though its really sad to have my girlfriend stay here

Hasta pronto

A man without the knowledge of his past history,culture and origins is like a tree without roots

Quoting Belizexp (Reply 11):would be nice if DL would try using 737-700 when 2008 come around but I know these A/C are needed in places like UIO, CCS and other Caribbean markets. I also wonder if maybe trying using a 737NG Redeye from LAX-BZE and then send it BZE-ATL (early morning) returning back to BZE in (evening hours) then back to LAX would work.

I'm sorry to hear DL is cutting LAX-BZE. I'm not surprised many people didn't know about it as I know my Central American friends here in Southern California didn't know they had started LAX-GUA. One of them booked her family on that route to see how they are service wise compared to TA...

BTW, how is DL's inflight product on their LAX-GUA service? Is catered like their other international flights with full catering or is treated like a resort flight with nothing? [ I have a feeling you guys & gals are going to say TA has a better product since they brought back full meal service] .

Quoting Yellowtail (Reply 24):Curios....what is the business/tourist/ethnic load makeup of this flight?

Most of the passenger -95%- pay a package that includes air fare, 6 nights at an all-inclusive hotel and day trips to local touristic places. A very few only pay airfare and adventure on their own. A much smaller market is Nicaraguan citizens residents in Montreal that come for the holidays.

There are a lot of middle-age to third age couples that come here, young couples a little bit less. You see some families of 4 - 5 mixed in as well. 99% are Canadian or Canadian residents.

Demand and offering at SJO.
Apologies, available in Spanish: http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2007/diciembre/01/economia1335710.htmlDuring the last 12 months, the overall quantity of seats on planes have been increased roughly 22%, for those flights heading to the USA.
The last concerning issue is the new F9DEN-SJO-DEN.
Detailed info and discussion: Frontier DEN-SJO Begins(by Mariner Nov 29 2007 in Civil Aviation)Nonetheless, facilities for passengers at terminal building have not grown at the same scale...
New boarding lounges will be opened on December 7th and SJO's authorities will distribute temporarily the seats from other areas on service. The rest of such equipment is expected by the end of the year.
Once again, the press release states the application of a new airline that is willing to link Bogota - San Jose.
Regards.

Has DL thought of flying ATL-SAP-MGA late afternoon and back next morning? SAL desperately needs a 2nd ATL flight, maybe an ATL-SAP-SAL?
If DL was big in MSY, I would recommend them to drop ATL-SAP and try ATL-MSY-SAP.

CM had initially announced new services for PTY-POS by December 15th.
It's a given that POS Port of Spain has been already loaded on CM's website.
However, such route will start around March 2008.

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Quoting Belizexp (Reply 30):Not in a million years DL int service focus on feeding the hubs conx pax.

I second that.
Nowadays, U.S. air carriers do not tend to put tag-on schedules on their regular operations in Central America, because the product becomes unappealing compared with other nonstop services in our region.
Due to the poor loads on NKFLL-GUA, they will downgrade the service from 7x weekly to 3x weekly. They do not establish a tag-on from GUA as a solution.
I realize DLBZE-ATL is getting a special situation deploying the 70-seat airplane CRJ-700 for the named leg. It is currently operated by ASA Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

On the most recent issue of Nuestro Grupo (basically a TA self-gloss internal publication) there's a piece about their recent deal with Embraer. They expect to take delivery of the first four aircraft between August and December of next year, and seem to have opted for a 96-pax (8 in F + 88 in Y) configuration.

Now for the interesting part, it goes on to say the eleven E190s "...cubriran rutas a partir del centro de conexion de San Jose de Costa Rica, hacia otros paises de Centroamerica y el Caribe." (for non-Spanish speakers: the entire E190 fleet will be based at their SJO hub to handle both the Central American and Caribbean route networks to/from Costa Rica).

Speaking of SJO, over 47,000 square feet of additional terminal space are being added this month. That's eight new boarding lounges (now seventeen total), four new jet bridges (now eight total), and six new immigration stations (now eighteen total). Welcome relief no doubt, considering this is one busy little airport. It handles an average of 8,000 pax daily (10,000 pax daily during the high season which btw kicks off next week).

Today December 10th La Nueva Aurora GUA will be inaugurated by the Guatemalan Goverment where many airlines representatives, tour operators and many people are invited. The airport isn't 100% ready but inaugurations are like this in Guatemala I will try to find some pictures and post them here.

aparently on Friday the 7th, an aerorepublica flight to MDE had an engine down after 20 mins into the flight, the friend told me the flight droped 10k feet, anyone have any other info?? what do u guys think bout aerorepublicas MD's are they safe? I know that the MD's dont get along well with central or south america

Welcome to the high season !
New air services are expecting in Central America this week.
By the way, some seasonal and charter flights are being activated once again. Furthermore, some regular operations will be upgrade in either frequencies or equipment.
I attached the new mainline services expected for this week.

Quoting Viaggiare (Reply 34):the entire E190 fleet will be based at their SJO hub to handle both the Central American and Caribbean route networks to/from Costa Rica).

Wow ! Based on TACA's assessment, eleven E190s seem a huge amount of planes for operations entirely to Central America and the Caribbean from SJO. The following comprehensive model illustrates that no more than six airplanes are enough to satisfy the current status and focusing on the named regions:

I am aware the 100-seat E190 cannot be certainly compared with the rest of TA's fleet, as well as the forecast on demand in the following years may justify deploying eleven E190s in mid-term and originated in Costa Rica. I am personally puzzled concerning to any profitable new route from SJO, heading either to the rest of Central America or the Caribbean on TA.

Quoting SJOtoLIR (Reply 38):
eleven E190s seem like a huge amount of planes for operations entirely to Central America and the Caribbean from SJO.

It does sound like overkill upon first hearing of it, but consider: (a) they currently have two 319 routes (HAV and SDQ) which might be better served with the E90s, (b) they currently have two ATR routes (MGA and SAP) which also might be better served with the E90s... there's your first four birds arriving late next year, (c) there are other routes they may be considering for 2009 and beyond, and my hallucination is that the following are probably being looked into: ADZ (frequent TA/LR charters headed that way), BAQ (used to be a tag-on to the PTY flights in the old days), SJU (LR flew there too at some point), DAV (they've already expressed interest there), GCM (once a tech stop-over on the old flights to MIA and home to a relatively significant tico worker colony), BGI, POS (these two are heavyweight CARICOM states with which Costa Rica has growing commercial ties, a free trade agreement in place, and diplomatic relations at the ambassador level), and for all we know perhaps even BZE (suffering from poor connections to Central/South America) and KIN (seeing plenty of Jamaicans hanging out in downtown San Jose these days, lol) are being given some thought.

Edit: Took out CLO and MDE from this educated guess list of mine as both are extraterritorial although in my opinion well-suited for regular service with this size aircraft to/from SJO. I also thought SCU (which had been proposed on a previous thread of this series) and a leisure destination in the Dominican Republic might turn out to be a couple of good additions to the list, but ultimately decided to leave my frivolous speculation at that for now.

Sadly, the PTY-DFW flight doesn't connect with the DFW-NRT. Lots of possible PTY-Asia traffic lost there.

Quoting Viaggiare (Reply 39):(a) they currently have two 319 routes (HAV and SDQ) which might be better served with the E90s,

If TA needs to downgrade their SJO-HAV and SJO-SDQ flights from A319 to E190, TA might be doing something wrong, while their competitors are to offer HAV 4 daily and have capacity problems with thrice daily SDQ flights.

a. They need to boost more services from their Central American focus cities [SJO, SAL, GUA] to these U.S. destinations where connections are affordable through UA network [mainly LAX and IAD] in order to exploit better the TA/UA pact.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...erican-presence-with-taca-and.htmlTA needs to watch carefully the movements given for AV. They are recently opening BOG-SJO and probably planning an expansion to Central America by means of its subsidiary MM. AV has obtained authorization to operate FRA and IAD being bases of Star Alliance system. AV will receive new fleet next year.

b. With respect to flights merely in Central America, the regional network would be improved as discussed early. Another specific point of view: TACA system is flying up to 3x daily MGA-SAL with ATR/Airbus and obviously these services are not consistent with themselves.

c. Regarding the eleven E90s based at SJO for flights heading to Central America and the Caribbean, it should be aware that their competitors are already catching passengers from SJO for operations in the isthmus: PTY-SJO-SAP, PTY-SJO-GUA, PTY-SJO-TGU and PTY-SJO-MGA.

d. In my humble opinion, a profitable venture in the Caribbean might be questionable. It will be interesting to look forward about how TA is doing with SJO-HAV and SJO-SDQ, prior to suggest new destinations/frequencies in such region.

e. Operations in/to South America are apparently working well. They started SAL-LIM and LIM-MVD as long as the new morning bank for selected routes from LIM has enhanced the network. I don't want to speculate with routes, but new services/frequencies from LIM would be a viable possibility following such pattern.

Further friendly discussions below:

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Quoting Viaggiare (Reply 39): ADZ (frequent TA/LR charters headed that way), BAQ (used to be a tag-on to the PTY flights in the old days), SJU (LR flew there too at some point), DAV (they've already expressed interest there), GCM (once a tech stop-over on the old flights to MIA

Nice reference to these nostalgic flights from the good old days !
Let me quote some operations stated on LACSA's timetable; issued on October 1986: SJO-SJU, SJO-MIA, SJO-PTY-BAQ-MAR-CCS, SJO-SAL-MEX-LAX, SJO-GUA-MEX-LAX, SJO-SAP-CUN-MSY and SJO-UIO-GYE-GIG [Varig cooperation].
The old business relationship Cayman Airways-LACSA as well as few/none U.S. carriers serving the Cayman Islands were topics to justify LRSJO-GCM-MIA.
If I recall correctly, SJO-ADZ was active as LR600, more than 25 years backward. Nowadays, some charters are available during the high season as you pointed out. It's the same with SJO-CUN.
By the late 90s, LR flew SJO-CCS-SJU-SDQ with 732.

CM is likely developing their network to the Caribbean supported in connections mostly from South America.
LAN system, AR and JJ [among other South American carriers] have very limited services there, or not existing at all.
Passengers from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile can easily get there counting no more than one layover on the way to several destinations in the Caribbean.
The backtracking through MIA becomes unattractive compared with connections through PTY from deep South America.

Central America to Asia?
Immediate connections through U.S. gateways are not easy due to their morning/mid-day departures in average.
The red-eye schedules Central America - the USA might have a chance, despite the waiting time ranged at [8 to 11] hours.

Quoting SJOtoLIR (Reply 47):TACA system is flying up to 3x daily MGA-SAL with ATR/Airbus and obviously these services are not consistent with themselves.

I dont get your comment. Care to explain a bit.

Quoting SJOtoLIR (Reply 47):a. They need to boost more services from their Central American focus cities [SJO, SAL, GUA] to these U.S. destinations where connections are affordable through UA network [mainly LAX and IAD] in order to exploit better the TA/UA pact.

I agree with you 100%. They have the agreement with UA - they need to exploit the hell of it.

Quoting Mt99 (Reply 50):No i am not. Give me some numbers.. or at least were i can find them..

Another thing "Asia" is a pretty big place. does this investment come from 1 particular country?

Panamanian schools to teach ChineseI hope this gets you an smile at least.. Imagine a couple of thousands of Chinese who will come here as Mandarin teachers and most likely, with their families.
Investment will be coming from Japan, Korea, PR China, Taiwan, Singapore even India.
Panama has major infrastructure projects on the way (Panama Canal 3rd set of locks, Panama City coastal avenue, new Trans-isthmian highway, possible refineries, major port expansions). Asians want a piece of the action.